Apple is suing a former employee for leaking confidential information to reporters and other company employees, including unknown details about the Apple Journal app, VisionOS headset development and more. The lawsuit, filed in California state court ten days ago (24CV433319, pdf), alleges that Andrew Aude also leaked regulatory compliance policies, headcount, and other product hardware characteristics.
As previously reported mike rumorThe company said in at least one message that Ord claimed he leaked the information “so he could ‘kill’ the products and features he took issue with.”
Apple cites numerous communications in its lawsuit:
Between June and September 2023 alone, Ord used encrypted messaging applications to contact a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter, whom Ord went by “Homeboy,” more than 1,400 times. Mr. Ord also read Homeboy’s final feature list for unreleased Apple products over the phone.Mr. Ord sent another reporter to information We sent over 10,000 text messages and traveled across the continent to meet her.
The following screenshot shows an encrypted message exchange between Aude and a Wall Street Journal reporter on the Signal app, which, as Apple says, “Aude frequently captures and saves on his Apple-issued work iPhone. Screenshots of communications to preserve for posterity.”
Apple accused Ord of leaking the final feature list for Apple’s Diary app in an April 2023 call to the same reporter.That same month, reports of unreleased app features appeared in wall street journal.
Aude joined Apple in 2016 as an iOS engineer, focusing on optimizing battery performance. Apple’s lawyers wrote that the nature of the role gave Ord access to “information about dozens of Apple’s most sensitive products.”
The leak was not discovered until late 2023, the company said. According to reports, when Apple representatives first met with Odeh in November 2023, he denied his involvement in the leak and falsely claimed that he had an Apple-issued iPhone with him. Then, they allege, he pretended to go to the bathroom, “removed his iPhone from his pocket during the break and permanently deleted numerous pieces of evidence” from his device, including the Signal app.
Then, during a second meeting on December 12, the complaint states, “Mr. Ord admitted that he leaked information about Apple’s regulatory compliance strategy, unreleased products, development policies, and certain released products to at least two reporters.” of hardware features. He was fired three days later. Apple’s filing says the company is seeking a jury trial, damages, “restitution and/or forfeiture” of bonuses and stock options, and “direction to Mr. Ord without “It agrees in writing not to disclose Apple’s confidential and proprietary information to third parties.”